Luce 1988

Methods	Randomized controlled trial 1 centre
Participants	Adults (n = 75) with sepsis and septic shock
Interventions	Methylprednisolone (30 mg/kg 15‐minute intravenous infusion every 6 hours for 24 hours) Placebo
Outcomes	PRIMARY Prevention of ARDS SECONDARY Hospital mortality
Notes	Study location: USA
Risk of bias
Bias	Authors' judgement	Support for judgement
Random sequence generation (selection bias)	Low risk	Computer‐generated randomization scheme
Allocation concealment (selection bias)	Low risk	Randomization list kept confidential by the pharmacist
Blinding (performance bias and detection bias) All outcomes	Low risk	Participants: yes Care‐givers: yes Data collectors: yes Outcome assessors: yes Data analysts: yes
Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias) All outcomes	High risk	12 out of 87 randomly assigned participants were not analysed, and their follow‐up was not given
Selective reporting (reporting bias)	Unclear risk	No access to study protocol
Other bias	Unclear risk	No access to data to exclude selection bias